Thanks Echoes - very interesting stuff. Noticed in commentary - so wiki'd it - that it has more editions than years of existence - it seems that from '77-'88 it was raced twice a season - what's is the story there? A pre and post Xmas pair of races?
Plus I'd now love to try a glass of Overijse - I'll raise a glass to you echoes when I track a bottle down over here!
Ah yes, Overijse used to be held twice every winter, I don't know why that was but that's how Roland Liboton
set a record, perhaps for eternity : 16 victories. I don't know if any rider has ever won close 16 times the same race but Liboton did that. I even remember an interview of Mathieu Van der Poel a few years ago. He was asked if he knew who held the record out there and he knew it the whole story.
On top of my head :
Roland Liboton, 16 times. But according to me, it was raced twice a season back then. So if I win it eight times, it's gonna be OK.
Sadly, only one winegrowing family in the Overijse area are still making wine out of their grapes : the Luppens family. Their wine cellar is called "Soniën" (which is probably named after the nearby forest "Zoniënwoud" in Dutch or "Forêt de Soigne" in French) :
https://www.sonien.be/. The cellar is especially known for their sparkling wine but they also produce ordinary wine. In the fifties, there were many more Overijse wines, sparkling wine in particular but with the advent of the European integration, they suffered more and more from the competition with French and Italian wine. So now most winegrowers are just selling their grapes as such.
Echoes - do you think Styby has a serious shot at Bronze - I would love to see that - a three time champ rolling back the years and claiming a podium spot?
Hardly possible in my opinion. If I'm well informed, Styby hasn't raced a single cross this season. So he would probably lack technical reflexes. In 2014, when he got the title back after being already a full time roadie, he had raced a couple crosses and capitalised on his freshness against cyclocross specialists who had already raced a full season. This time, the season was shortened, so everybody will have save energy for this major event. They will all be fit. And don't forget he'll be far behind at the start. Besides, if I understand correctly, it was a last minute decision, given the fact that many season-opening road races are threatened to be cancelled. I think it would be a great performance if he makes it into the top10 but it's already nice that he's showing up.
